Reconstructing Research Integrity (eBook)

This book exposes significant threats to research integrity and identifies policies and practices that can reverse these trends. It is focused on human research and US policy. Recent assessments have shown inadequacies in institutions, policies, and practices that seriously compromise ethics. The presumed self-regulatory nature of the scientific endeavor has been exposed to have allowed unabated areas of poor-quality science, an incomplete and inaccessible scientific record, conflicts of interest, differing notions of accountability, virtually no evidence base to direct research integrity policy, and a growing sense of alienation, moral injury and even revolt among scientists. Reconstructing Research Integrity aims to capture ways of vigorously moving toward scientific and ethical rigor, including self-correction and emerging or already-successful initiatives.

The book begins with analysis of the full system of institutions, policies, and practices involved in production, dissemination, and application of research, including an examination of the blind spots in research ethics ideology, policy, and practice. The book then identifies policies and practices that can reverse harmful ethical trends, such as strengthening Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) training and improving self-regulation in the scientific community. Finally, the book discusses the constant evolution of research ethics and integrity, which is illustrated by emerging research fields like gene editing and data science.

This book will be of interest to all research administrators in academic, commercial and government positions; to policy advisors at the National Science Foundation and at the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine; to graduate students in research ethics; to advanced bioethics education programs across the globe; and to researchers and consultants in ELSI (ethical, legal, and social implications) programs.

Barbara K. Redman, PhD, is Associate, Division of Medical Ethics, NYU Grossman School of Medicine. She has an extensive list of publications in research integrity, research misconduct, and research ethics in general. Through a Fogarty training grant to NYU and the University of Ghana, Dr. Redman teaches research integrity to Ghanaian fellows who are addressing issues of research integrity in their own country. As a Senior Fellow in the GE2P2 Global Foundation, she leads teams providing consultation on issues of research integrity to large and small global pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Redman has served the US Office of Research Integrity as a research grant reviewer and as a special consultant. She served for several years on the Wayne State University School of Medicine IRB and has been a reviewer for multiple bioethics journals.

In addition to her PhD, Dr. Redman holds a master's degree in bioethics from the University of Pennsylvania. She was a Visiting Scholar at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University, a Fellow in Medical Ethics at Harvard Medical School, a Senior Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics and a Network Fellow at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. She holds honorary doctorates from Georgetown University and the University of Colorado.